Bitter and twisted ! Chassis dimension data wanted

[rjahunter]

Hi everyone.

I'm in the throes of our full blown body rebuild, and my expert mate has found two interesting issues which we are putting right.

1. The body was slightly twisted when bolted to a jig. Because it's my Dad's old car, I know it never had a crash, so we think it's a result of a botched resto in the 90's - we think it was welded while one corner was jacked up. I'm told it's not a problem to fix.

2. More fascinatingly, the body is 4mm longer on one side than the other ! :?

He's talking to E J Ward to see whether one side is too long or the other too short ! Only really affects door gaps but I'm trying to get it done well so we want to be exact. Does anyone have the original BL workshop manual, which apparently has chassis dimensions data ? If so, a scan of the relevant pages would be brilliant. or just reply with any info you can find.

Life would be boring if it was all as expected........

Richard

[Andy Rundell]

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rjahunter wrote:

Does anyone have the original BL workshop manual, which apparently has chassis dimensions data ? If so, a scan of the relevant pages would be brilliant. or just reply with any info you can find.

Courtesy of Don Kennedy

http://www.donkennedy.co.uk/StagManual.pdf

i think section 76 is the one you are after

........Andy

P.S. a 4mm differnce is pretty good by BL standards

[rjahunter]

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You are indeed a good man - this forum is RIDICULOUSLY quick for help with strange problems ! Thanks a lot - here's the latest pic of the project. I'm going on a hospital visit to the welding shop on Saturday so I should be able to put a couple more up then.

Thanks again

Richard

Dipping process.jpg

[dasadrew]

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I am intrigued.... that looks very much like a caustic bath for removing paint and, well, just about everything?

I am almost at that stage with mine, but at least over here there has been a lot of info going around on those baths (if it is one) recently. A few bad cases where salts left in dead corners then rust through from the inside over a year or so. The major resto companies now only do it for simple items where they can be sure to get all salts out.

[rjahunter]

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Interesting but scary..............

It does get a phosphoretic bath at the end of it all which is supposed to prevent this, and I haven't heard of any issues elsewhere.

Richard

[Guest]

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I think this is done at RSPL(?) in Dudley west midlands. They dip it, wash it. You take it away and repair it, then they dip it again, wash it again the soak it in a hot phosphate(?) bath to rust proof it like a modern shell. Then you take it away and have it painted!!

I wish I could afford the time/money for this treatment to my Stag. Ho Hum



Jason

[dasadrew]

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rjahunter wrote:

Interesting but scary..............

It does get a phosphoretic bath at the end of it all which is supposed to prevent this, and I haven't heard of any issues elsewhere.

Richard

Then it is the treatment I thought it was.

The packages over here were basically:

- Caustic bath, then epoxy primer
- Caustic bath, then cathodic coating, then epoxy primer

After gathering all the info a couple of years ago for another car, I was now going in that direction with the Stag but got unsettled by the corrosion stories.

I approached the company who would be in line to do mine a couple of weeks back and, all of a sudden, they only do the caustic dip on flat panels, gearbox housings etc., where they can be sure that no salt will remain trapped in folds or sections.

They confirmed the corrosion issue which is independent of any primer or cathodic protection applied as the salt is still in there. It takes a while to work its way through to the outside, but I gather there were a few rather "disappointed" Mercedes owners and the like out there!